The Daily (W)Rite
Monday, July 15, 2o13
Okay, so I tried to write my personal, daily diary as pages on one of my poetry blogs. Little did I know I could only write up to 20 pages. Actually, I did know that. I just forgot that I knew that. Anyway, I've decided to start a blog for my rambles about life, liberty and the pursuit of.. whatever. My only fear is that now that which was semi-private is now a full-fledged blog that anybody can see. It's not that I'm worried about saying something embarrassing 'cause nothing bothers me when it comes to writing what I want to write about. BUT sense it IS a "full-fledged" blog, I don't want to come off boring. Now THAT would be embarrassing! So, I will try my best to be creative, witty and poetic as I pour out from my fingers all the strange... sometimes wonderful... ideas that float around in my head all day... and all night. Beware... you've been warned.
4:58 PM
You know that I know I'm a strange looking dude (see the pictures above), right? Okay, maybe not strange-strange but "suspicious" looking. So, I'm waiting for a cab inside Walmart ('cause it's raining)and this AC/DC T-shirt wearing guy and his wife and his baby pull their cart up to mine and the husband gives me the hairy eyeball. His wife does the same and then wifie gives her husband the "I'll be okay" look and hubby looks me over one more time and goes out to get his car so wifie, baby and groceries don't get all wet walking through the parking lot... and all I'm thinking is... "I hope that bastard doesn't come back with a gun and go all George Zimmerman on me!" Paranoid? Maybe. But what happened down in Florida to Tayvon...? I'm worrying about people.
10:46 PM
... And of course, there's the big verdict! Man shoots an unarmed kid, and in a court of law is found not guilty of murder. Warms your heart, doesn't it? Makes you feel all patriotic and... well... AMERICAN. And of course, the battle lines are drawn in America along the black and white lines that have always kept this country away from being a real country, one ruled by ALL the people, one country for ALL the people. I really don't understand it. I got a lot of friends on Facebook who are just tearing each other apart. I try to stay out of it, but like everybody else I got strong opinions about the Zimmerman trial. But my opinions are not based on the color (or perceived color) of somebody's skin, or misconceived ideas about the 2nd Amendment. My opinion about what happened that night in a Florida town is based on having been shot at twice, beat-up numerous because the color (or perceived color) of my skin, a shit load f drunken brawls, gang fights and the physical and mental abuse I suffered at the hands of a drunken stepfather that stuck a loaded shotgun in my gut once and told me he was, first, going to kill me then go and kill my baby sister and mother. Now before you get to feeling too sorry for me I need to let you know I'm as much of a bastard as that drunken stepfather. I've been kicking people's asses and having my own ass kicked for a very long time. Yeah, I was a drunk, and not one of those friendly, laughing, huggable drunks either. No, I was a mean drunk. So, when it comes to fighting and what goes on in a fight and how a fight starts, you can take it to the bank that I know something about it. And I sat here watching the trial on TV, and listening to these "lawyers" tell us all about fighting and violence... and I'm not believing a word that's coming out of any one of their mouths. Yeah, they brought on all their "expert" witnesses to tell the jury ALL about violence and fighting and... that jury believed everything they said, even though everything they said was a lie. Maybe tomorrow I'll talk more about this. I got a lot to say on the subject. But now, I'm tired.
Tuesday, July 16 2o13
4:58 PM
You know that I know I'm a strange looking dude (see the pictures above), right? Okay, maybe not strange-strange but "suspicious" looking. So, I'm waiting for a cab inside Walmart ('cause it's raining)and this AC/DC T-shirt wearing guy and his wife and his baby pull their cart up to mine and the husband gives me the hairy eyeball. His wife does the same and then wifie gives her husband the "I'll be okay" look and hubby looks me over one more time and goes out to get his car so wifie, baby and groceries don't get all wet walking through the parking lot... and all I'm thinking is... "I hope that bastard doesn't come back with a gun and go all George Zimmerman on me!" Paranoid? Maybe. But what happened down in Florida to Tayvon...? I'm worrying about people.
10:46 PM
... And of course, there's the big verdict! Man shoots an unarmed kid, and in a court of law is found not guilty of murder. Warms your heart, doesn't it? Makes you feel all patriotic and... well... AMERICAN. And of course, the battle lines are drawn in America along the black and white lines that have always kept this country away from being a real country, one ruled by ALL the people, one country for ALL the people. I really don't understand it. I got a lot of friends on Facebook who are just tearing each other apart. I try to stay out of it, but like everybody else I got strong opinions about the Zimmerman trial. But my opinions are not based on the color (or perceived color) of somebody's skin, or misconceived ideas about the 2nd Amendment. My opinion about what happened that night in a Florida town is based on having been shot at twice, beat-up numerous because the color (or perceived color) of my skin, a shit load f drunken brawls, gang fights and the physical and mental abuse I suffered at the hands of a drunken stepfather that stuck a loaded shotgun in my gut once and told me he was, first, going to kill me then go and kill my baby sister and mother. Now before you get to feeling too sorry for me I need to let you know I'm as much of a bastard as that drunken stepfather. I've been kicking people's asses and having my own ass kicked for a very long time. Yeah, I was a drunk, and not one of those friendly, laughing, huggable drunks either. No, I was a mean drunk. So, when it comes to fighting and what goes on in a fight and how a fight starts, you can take it to the bank that I know something about it. And I sat here watching the trial on TV, and listening to these "lawyers" tell us all about fighting and violence... and I'm not believing a word that's coming out of any one of their mouths. Yeah, they brought on all their "expert" witnesses to tell the jury ALL about violence and fighting and... that jury believed everything they said, even though everything they said was a lie. Maybe tomorrow I'll talk more about this. I got a lot to say on the subject. But now, I'm tired.
Tuesday, July 16 2o13
"It depends on your intent.
Do you wanna get mad
and break something
or
do you wanna get mad
and fix something?"
People are pissed. And juror number... whatever... made things worse with a self-serving interview on CNN, saying, "I think his (Zimmerman) heart was in the right place." She's an idiot who's planning to write a book on the trauma she must of suffered by being juror number... whatever... and she'll probably make a lot of money off of it. It appears that EVERYBODY involved in the trial of George Zimmerman is an idiot and contributed to the most idiotic verdict since the OJ trial. And I'm not talking just about the defense team. The prosecutors had their heads stuck up their briefcases too. The prosecutor's 'expert" witnesses? What a joke. What were they experts on? Being morons? The whole trial was a sham, a copout, down right evil. However, you can't change the verdict. All the violence in the world will not change the verdict. Tearing up L.A. is not going to bring Tayvon back. Protest is a good thing... NON-VIOLENT PROTEST! That can help change things. But violent protest, burning shit up, throwing bricks through windows don't change a thing in America. Be mad, be angry, and let all that grief fuel change... and remember change can only come through peaceful determination to fix what's broken.
Wednesday, July 17, 2o13
I live about a 1/2 block away from the railroad tracks. Mostly it's busied by freight haulers, lots of steel and lots of tanker cars, big black tanker cars filled with... ? I don't know what. Now and then, usually later in the evening, theirs a passenger train that slides sleekly and quietly through town. It's heading for OKC and lands beyond. The windows are tinted so at night it's hard to see in. But I bet it's filled with business men and train men... and students on their way home for the holidays. I've always loved trains. Love the sight, the smell of them, the mournful sound of their whistles late at night. Where I'm living you can hear them coming from miles and miles away... particularly in the late evening and early morning. Sometimes they wake me up... but I don't mind. There's something calming about the sound of a train passing by when you're dreaming.
Thursday, July 18, 2o13
I made a discovery yesterday. It's better if I turn off the TV and put on a little music as I write my blog. So, whatever happens here on the computer-screen page will be the fault of the Rolling Stone and not the voices of the liberal hipsters on The Cycle.
This is my writing lab. Okay, not really a "lab," just a corner of my little bachelor apartment. An old computer desk, small but sufficient laptop, room for my coffee cup and the modem for TV, phone and wireless hook up. Unfortunately, Spent most of the morning arguing with some guy on Facebook about the difference between whining and protesting. Yes, that's right, the Zimmerman verdict is still a hot topic. This guy wrote a "poem" about how bitching about little things was the same as bitching about the verdict in the Zimmerman case. So, I wrote this and posted it on my Facebook page: "I'm concerned when we as a people can't tell the difference between standing up against injustice... and whining." And THEN the fight was on. He came at me with all these burnt-out clichés about, "The court system isn't perfect... can't go against the system... he got a fair trial... blah-deBlah-deBlah..." and I shot back with this:
"Jyrone, I understand that you believe a lot of what you're saying. But trying to debate an issue by using the same old clichés I've heard since I was a little kid... just doesn't convince me: 'our justice system is far from perfect, but it is the best one we have.' Well, if it ain't perfect, then let's fix the damn thing. 'And as we speak, young unarmed teenagers of all colors are being shot down in the streets. Where's the outrage?' So, if we don't pay attention to every injustice, every murder, every illegal thing that happens in America at exactly the same time... we can't pay attention to ANY of them? If the media played the race card, if the Right played the race card, if the Left played the race card, if the NRA played the 2nd Amendment card, If the prosecution played the kid card, if the defense played the self-defense card... I really don't care 'cause I'm playing 'the I don't want to be shot when I'm walking down the street wearing my hoodie card.' And that's the only card I care about. We cannot give people the right to murder whomever they want when they FEEL like it. Yes, we must accept the verdict of this case, however, we are obligated to denounce the court system when it doesn't do its job... protesting a verdict IS the only way to go about fixing a system that is a GOOD system but can be misused. And in this case, in my opinion, the court didn't do it's job properly."
And that was that. Didn't make any difference. I shouldn't be disappointed that it didn't because the worth of doing a thing or saying a thing is in how honest you present your side... the outcome I have no control over. Wish I did, though.
Friday, July 19th, 2o13
A wonderful day to be American. Today our President Obama gave an extraordinary, impromptu speech concerning the death of Tayvon Martin, the Zimmerman Trial and his personal struggles with racism back when he was a kid. You can view the speech in its entirety on YouTube (address above.)My long time friend, Albert Bostick, is an African-American artist and civil rights activist. The "murder" of Tavyon Martin hit him hard. In the last few days he has produced several paintings as a tribute to Tayvon. They are rather spectacular, and there are more to come. Al's creative energy
inspired me to sit down today and write another poem about the killing in Florida. The poem's not as "straightforward" as Al's paintings, but people seem to be gravitating to the Facebook site where I posted it. I'm also going to post it on my poetry blog, More Poetry by Robert R. Woods. I think this is enough for me tonight. Tomorrow I'll be back to write a little more... about what? You know, I never know. Do watch and listen to the speech when you have time.
Saturday, July, 2o, 2o13
Well, it's probably NOT a surprise that for the last few days my blog has gone all politics. Not surprising since so much is going on around the "murder" of Trayvon Martin. The message of President Obama's speech yesterday came to life today with numerous protest vigils in big cities all around the good old USA. And of course, where you have one group of liked minded people voicing their collective opinion, you're going to get the "other side" out voicing their opinion. I just don't understand how there can be another side to racism and gun violence. But there are people who can't join in and support that which is "right" because... well hell, just because they don't want to. It goes against what they want to believe. I posted this little idea on Facebook this morning:
"Pretzel Logic. A fun sort of thing. Can be used when you have no viable facts to support what you wish to believe. Example: "Catsup is always red. Therefore, racism in America does not exist." If you listen long enough to nonsense reasoning, you could start believing it! The more we repeat a lie, the easier it is for other people to start to accept it as a truth, as a fact! And that should scare the heck out of all of us."
Pretzel Logic is a logic that... well, it's not logic at all. It's a magic trick, slight of hand, or if you will, slight of mouth. Best example I got right now was the Right's use of Pretzel Logic to dismiss the idea of Global Warming: "Al Gore rides around on a jet airplane. Therefore, Global Warming doesn't exist." I know it sounds silly, but that was Sean Hannity's big Pretzel Logic statement back when Gore's movie about Global Warming, An Inconvenient Truth, came out. Although it appears to be mostly a CONservative strategy, the Left is just as guilty of using it. I've always loved the Pretzel Logic of "Science is all about facts and truth. Therefore, God does not exist." Again, we have an absolute that doesn't hold all that much metaphorical water. I remember as a kid science told me chocolate would give me pimples. About thirty years later science told me chocolate did NOT cause pimples. That pissed me off. All those kid years I spent feeling guilty about eating chocolate. AND for most of my adult life I've believed that nothing was faster than the speed of light. Why? Because Einstein said so! NOW we find out it isn't true. So I'm figuring if science can't get the speed of light and chocolate right, why should I believe them when they tell me, "There is no God."
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